Kubic calls for filling Beaufort County vacancies before boosting pay

Some members of the Beaufort County Council want to raise salaries for public employees by another one percent, but the county’s administrator says he doesn’t see a way to do that without dipping into reserves. Gary Kubic, Beaufort County administrator, said filling some of the 61 jobs left vacant during the Great Recession could prove wiser.

Councilman William McBride of St. Helena’s Island broached the subject most recently during a finance committee meeting, arguing council has historically followed the state’s lead with public sector cost-of-living raises, which would mean another point on top of the two percent adjustment the county’s nearly 900 full-time employees are receiving this year.

“I can assure you that if we grant another percentage point on the cost of living that nobody’s going to run off and put it in the Cayman Islands, Swiss bank account, someplace,” he said. “I believe that money will be spent in Beaufort County.”

He added that the two percent increase already approved was softened by about a half a percentage point increase in pension fund contributions, and the county has about $2.5 million more in reserves than anticipated.

Another one percent raise on top of the first wage hike in four years would cost the county about $550,000.

Councilman Jerry Stewart of Sun City said there’s no question council supports it, but if the group decides the move is necessary it’ll result in either higher property taxes or a blow to reserves.

“I think the employees here certainly deserve it,” he said. “What I’m concerned about is...the only way we can do it without increasing taxes is taking out of the reserve.”

Finance Committee Chairman Stu Rodman said he favors hearing a staff report after August to see how revenue and spending fall compared to what council anticipated in its 2013 budget, but Kubic said 90 days would be a better mark and questioned using reserve funding for a recurring operational expense.

“To apply funds from reserves for operations — it can be done, but it should be done very carefully, for a primary purpose,” he said.

In a later interview he called the option of using supplemental money along with reserve funding to pay for operating costs a form of deficit spending, noting council consciously restored the fund balance since overspending in 2010 largely by leaving 61 full-time jobs vacant.

“I would rather look at whether existing workforce productivity is matching demand for service on a reasonable basis,” he said. “If you’re used to receiving (a report) in a week but it now takes 10 working days, is that reasonable or do you want to add a person and get that result sooner rather than later?”

A specific area of concern is public safety, particularly at the Beaufort County Detention Center, but also emergency medical services and emergency management response, he said.

There may not have been a cost-of-living increase in four years, but the county avoided layoffs, Kubic added. Finding another $550,000 this year doesn’t sound likely, he said.

“To be quite frank with you, a half million spike in revenue projection is going to be pretty hard to see,” Kubic said.

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Making sure public safety is a top priority is "nice", but sounds like a talking point to me.
Hey, if they want to locate some money to put into public safety, they could weed out some of the county workers sitting on their butts most of the day.
I know several people working for BC and they get paid a full days pay for doing VERY little work. In fact, many joke about how little work they do in a day (like change a couple light bulbs in the library and get paid for working all day). In fact, there are county employees who have retired from the County but continue to be employed there (why not.....it's such a cushy job it's just like being retired), so the taxpayers are paying their current salary AND they are collecting a county retirement package, thus double dipping the taxpayers.
Some of our HVAC guys, plumbers, electricians, "technicians", etc, have very little work to do during the day. IMO many of them should be "on call" and work when work needs to be done (perfect job for those "retired" county workers) - not putting in (and getting paid for) 40hr work weeks when there isn't that much work to do.
Typical government job and our tax dollars at work (ie: being wated).
But the bottom line is, it's a waste and we can't afford it.

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